a l i v e & a w a k e

 
I was on my walk home to my apartment from Switch Yard.  I had an argument with a friend over evangelism and how it should be done and what shouldn’t happen. I believed that God was telling me to go to the bars and reach the youth that had turned 19, the parents of the youth and build community connections.  The whole thing I knew from my denominational past was that “ministry can’t happen there”.  It was a ‘flee from sin’ mentality.  As soon as I set foot into any bar, I would take my character and the viability of Switch Yard and run it through the dirt in the eyes of the church community.  That could mean a severing of finances. I had asked many people for their opinion and got words of caution.  I had also just visited a church leadership group where they deflated me for the way I had helped start a church (Bridge), for the way I have used 'Satan’s tools' to do God’s work. I was told I wasn’t supposed to do this work in ministry because I am single and not commended in their eyes.  That night in Switch Yard for me was defeating because it was now my own friend who was criticizing my burden and theology.  He told me I would cause others to stumble. I left very frustrated and angry at why I wasn’t being affirmed.  Thats when I met Jer on the bridge in town.
 
He was drunk and stoned out of his mind and visibly depressed.  I approached and he saw me and said “ Joe!  The good Lord, our Father sent you here tonight” (I thought he was being sarcastic). He wasn’t. He had been on the bridge for about a half an hour and contemplating suicide. The girl he loved was at this moment having sex with another guy and Jer didn’t know what to do with himself.  His conversation was all over the place and he seemed most infatuated with the lights that seemed to dance around and make his head spin. I was feeling very sorry for him and wished I could have wise soothing words to help him from his anxiety. 
 
He stopped his pity party and asked how the drop-in was going. I lied and told him things were good.  Jer turned and directly faced me and said in the most sober voice I had heard all night “ Joe, God wants you to know that what you are doing is good, but He wants you to get outside of those walls and help others in the community. Help the people who were at the party I just came from. The homes that these families live, the bars, the streets.”
Jer went back to talking about the lights and how they were so freaky and changing colors.
I just stood there with my mind doing flips.  I couldn’t believe what he had just said. 
Jer/God wasn’t done, “Joe you know I see you biking through town and people look up to you, but you always seem to have a ‘too good for you’ barrier around you that keeps everything comfortable for you. That is not what God wants”.  
His attention went back to the lights.
 
I was floored.  In my head as I walked home I kept asking “God was that you?”
 
I soon started the bar ministry.  I also went in to homes and took church leaders and volunteers on street walks.  In the bars I learned so much about what the church needed to be.  Such community, such welcoming arms from such hurting people.  I learned that this was the place I held Christ’s hand the tightest and learned much about the town and parents of the youth.  In the bars I met the very helpful and giving people.  Some of them became the ones who cook for the Switch Yard fund raiser every year and helps raise thousands of dollars for the ministry. They also became an instrument in helping our Switch Yard /Christmas dinner become a community Christmas dinner in which thousands are fed.  In the bars God led me to teacher who began a serious relationship with Jesus. In the bars I was able to build many relationships that still continue to today when I go back to Bancroft. 
 
I am someday going to write a book that is titled “Every thing the church needs to learn about reaching a community comes from the bar” .
This all happen because God took one drunk, stoned, suicidal, Jer and gave me the confirming word to GO! (Matt 28:19-20)
Thank you God.